Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos sought Friday to reassure Israel over a new Mideast peace initiative proposed the day before by Spain, France and Italy, saying that there was nothing in the plan "that Israel can reject."Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that Israel rejected the new peace initiative out of hand. She told Moratinos that it was unacceptable for an initiative concerning Israel to be launched without coordination with Jerusalem.Livni also told Moratinos that if the sponsors of the initiative were so inclined, they should seek to hold dialogue with Israel on any new plan. But Moratinos told Haaretz on Friday he had spoken to his Israeli counterpart about the initiative, in what he described was a "good conversation," and had "tried to convince her that it's not an anti-Israeli plan."He said that, "at the end of the conversation it was fine," and promised to provide Livni with "all the details."... http://www.haaretz.com

Iraqi interpreters working with the British Army in Basra are being systematically hunted down and killed. At least 21 have been kidnapped and shot in head over the past three weeks, their bodies dumped in different parts of the city. Another three are still missing. In a single mass killing, 17 interpreters were killed.No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but militia groups fighting for control of the province - and opposed to the presence of foreign troops - are widely suspected."This is not a general threat against Iraqi security forces; interpreters are specifically being killed," an Iraqi police officer familiar with the case told The Independent by telephone from Basra. "It has been happening at a low level for the past year, but the campaign is getting worse....http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1990392.ece

A leading Sunni Muslim cleric in Iraq has dismissed attempts by the government to have him arrested. Harith al-Dhari, who heads the Association of Muslim Scholars, said the government was acting illegally. He is a fierce critic of the government, and has accused it of provoking a crisis with him to cover up their own failures on security. The Iraqi interior minister, Jawad Bolani, said Mr Dhari was accused of encouraging sectarian violence. But another government spokesman said later that the Sunni cleric would not be arrested immediately, but was facing investigation. Mr Dhari, who is in Jordan, has said he will return to Iraq at an appropriate time. These developments come two days after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki publicly criticised him. BBC Baghdad correspondent David Loyn says Mr Dhari is an Iraqi nationalist who is opposed to any co-operation with America and is also against government proposals to give an amnesty to anyone who gives up the insurgency...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6157900.stm

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney insisted on Friday that America must not turn its back on Iraq, even as the Bush administration considers a course change in the war after voters vented anger over it in this month's elections. "Some in our country may believe in good faith that retreating from Iraq would make America safer. Recent experience teaches the opposite lesson," Cheney said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Cheney was speaking publicly for the first time since the November 7 elections in which voter anger over Iraq helped oust President George W. Bush's Republicans from power in Congress. He praised departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a reformer and "one of the great public servants of the age," drawing applause from the audience. Cheney is a close ally of Rumsfeld. Some analysts believe Bush's announcement of the Pentagon chief's dismissal the day after the election may ...http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061118/ts_nm/iraq_usa_cheney_dc

Bush, trying to stiffen global resolve to confront North Korea, failed to win South Korea's support Saturday for a tough inspection program to intercept ships suspected of carrying supplies for Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missiles.Bush sought to persuade South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to fully implement U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea for testing nuclear weapons. He also sought South Korea's support in the Proliferation Security Initiative, a voluntary international program that calls for stopping ships suspected of trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.Roh said his country "is not taking part in the full scope" of the security initiative, but that it would "support the principles and goals of the PSI."...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/18/ap/world/mainD8LF7IV00.shtml

The Bush administration is preparing its largest spending request yet for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a proposal that could make the conflict the most expensive since World War II. The Pentagon is considering $127 billion to $160 billion in requests from the armed services for the 2007 fiscal year, which began last month, several lawmakers and congressional staff members said. That's on top of $70 billion already approved for 2007. Since 2001, Congress has approved $502 billion for the war on terror, roughly two-thirds for Iraq. The latest request, due to reach the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress next spring, would make the war on terror more expensive than the Vietnam War. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who will chair the Senate Budget Committee next year, said the amount under consideration is "$127 billion and rising." He said the cost "is going to increasingly become an issue" because it could prevent Congress from addressing domestic priorities, ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-16-iraq-costs_x.htm